Scenes from the Garland Community Garden: top left our pole beans from 2016; top right a sign made for us by our Garland Parks and Recreation Department; bottom left a sign showing all the butterflies of North Texas; bottom right our loofah tunnel in the early spring before the vines started crawling--we huge signs with pictures of the loofahs for a tour of 110 school children.

Loving Garland Green needs your help!

We have submitted a grant application in the 2017 Seeds® of Change Grant Program, and need you to vote for us on their website and help us win a $25,000 grant.

Seeds of Change®, a leading producer of sustainably grown organic seeds and nutritious organic foods, is a true seed-to-plate brand committed to helping people create healthier and greener communities. They deliver an annual Grant Program that benefits school and community gardening and farming programs in the United States, because they understand the value of food, farming, sustainability and nutrition education. Through the donation of a percent of net sales, this year, Seeds of Change® is awarding $310,000 in total grants to 24 garden projects around the country.

Please visit the Seeds of Change® Grant Program website at seedsofchangegrant.com to help increase our chances of receiving grant funds to support our gardening initiatives. You can vote once per day from March 30 to April 19. Once voting closes, the 50 organizations with the most votes will move on to the final judging phase and 24 recipients will be announced around May 8.

For more information about Seeds of Change® or the Seeds of Change® Grant Program, please visit seedsofchangegrant.com. You can also share photos of your time in our garden on Facebook and Twitter using #SeedsofChangeGrant.

It takes a united community to win this grant!

We have passed the first hurdle by being accepted into the gallery of applicants. Whether or not we make it over the second hurdle depends on how supportive our DFW community is. The third and final hurdle will begin on April 24. A panel of judges made of of Seeds of Change farmers and brand leaders and strategic partners who will evaluate the fifty applications that received the most votes to select the 24 organizations to receive the grant awards. Applicants will be judged on food education, community impact, need based, and leadership and inspiration.

TO VIEW OUR SUBMISSION (AND VOTE ONCE-A-DAY STARTING ON MARCH 30 to April 19):

Voting once a day for the Garland Community Garden from March 30 to April 19 will benefit all those living in the DFW area. Our garden is open to the public. We share information and hold events that are open to all visitors in the DFW area.

HOW WOULD WE USE THIS MONEY?

1. How would you use this grant to help your community?

We would use the grant proceeds to support our mission: to increase the number of people in our community who grow at least some of the food they eat. We would use the money for demonstrations of affordable and easy gardening techniques; for free seed giveaway events; for signage with information regarding the plants and various projects ongoing in the garden; to help establish a Citizen Scientist Program whereby the Garland Community Garden would be the living laboratory; to install a gutter system on an existing building at the garden with a reservoir of 15,000 gallons. Rainwater collection from roofs is a great source of supplemental water for gardens in our drought-prone area. And finally we would use this money to help others in our city establish neighborhood community gardens. It’s a proven fact: when people live close by a community garden they more are likely to garden there. Our minority/majority city covers 57 square miles so we need lots of community gardens.

2. What does your garden do to teach people about where food comes from?

The Garland Community Garden is easily accessible and is open to the public from sunup to sundown. Visitors can see plants growing from seed to food. Many gardening lessons are as informal as someone stopping in to chat with a member working in the garden. Topics at our monthly Garden Sweep range from the importance of seed selection to organic methods for dealing with pests. Some of our programs support the importance of pollinators who are responsible for one of every three bites of food that we put in our mouths. Without pollinators many of the seeds we plant would not produce food. We make presentations about growing edibles to other local nonprofits. We participate in several annual city and school sponsored health fairs. We assist people in installing urban gardens—from square foot raised beds, to container gardening, to simple pole bean planting that costs very little money to grow all the green beans from seed you can eat and also to freeze for later consumption.

3. How do you measure success for your programs?

The growth of our garden is one measure of our success. We began the garden four years ago on April 24, 2014 with one 32- square foot garden plot. Today our garden has 39 plots covering over 2,230 square feet of planted space. In addition to our vegetables that we grow from heirloom seeds each year, we have eight fruit trees, four grape vines, and 22 blackberry bushes in their third year. Loving Garland Green are the official stewards of this city-owned property. One third of our produce goes to community charities. We don’t charge dues or fees for plot space. We pay our own water bill with money from quarterly yard sales and an annual pecan sale campaign. Members pick local native pecans for this sale. As we begin our fourth year we will apply metrics to measure the success of all our events and projects. The criteria will vary from project to project but will be tied to stated goals of each project.

PLEASE VOTE AND PLEASE ONLY VOTE ONCE A DAY AS SEEDS OF CHANGE WILL DISCOUNT MORE THAN ONE VOTE FROM THE SAME PERSON PER DAY. This even includes votes from different email addresses, but the same person.